by PharmacyChecker.com | Sep 10, 2015 | Drug Prices, Prescription Drug Reports
More than six million Americans suffer from atrial fibulation (AFib), a heart condition that puts them at a much higher risk for blood clots and can cause a stroke. Strokes are most often seen in people over 65, and can lead to paralysis and death.
There are many anticoagulants (blood thinning drugs) used to prevent strokes, Coumadin (warfarin) being one of the oldest and most commonly used. But Coumadin is not right for some people: it can cause heavy internal bleeding and requires regular and frequent blood tests.
One of the newer medications, Eliquis, has been shown to have a lower risk of major bleeding and is better for people suffering from kidney disease. It is also effective as a medication for preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DVT is caused when blood clots form in large veins, usually in the legs, and often in those with restricted mobility, such as people who are recovering from surgery.
But Eliquis can be expensive. If you don’t have insurance or are underinsured and have to pay out-of-pocket, the retail price is around $1,182.00 for a 90 day supply at a local U.S. pharmacy. Americans are at serious risk if they can’t afford this medication, especially seniors who are most likely to suffer a stroke. Despite Medicare Part D coverage, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than 13% of poorer Americans over the age of 65 did not take their medication as prescribed.1 And that can put their health and even their lives at risk.
There are ways of reducing the cost of Eliquis (see the table below). If you use a pharmacy discount card, you may be able to get it down to about $1,021 at your local U.S. pharmacy. But that still works out to over $4,080 per year. For many Americans those prices are out of reach. Fortunately, Eliquis 5mg, 90 days’ supply, is only $401.99 using a verified international online pharmacy, a savings of more than $3,100 versus the retail pharmacy price over a year’s time.
If you have AFib, and are prescribed Eliquis by a doctor, it’s vital for you to stay on your medication. Hopefully these price comparisons help you evaluate the best option for your health and savings. If you decide to buy internationally, remember, when using an online pharmacy, makes sure it’s one that’s been verified by PharmacyChecker.com.
Compare drug prices for Eliquis.
Eliquis 5 mg Savings (90 day supply)
| Program
| Price
| Savings over Local Pharmacy
| Percent Savings
| Annual Savings
|
| Local Pharmacy* |
$1,181.97 |
— |
— |
— |
| Pharmacy Discount Card* |
$1,021.88 |
$160.09 |
14% |
$640.36 |
| International Online Pharmacy |
$401.99 |
$779.99 |
66% |
$3,119.94 |
*Savings based on lowest price listed on PharmacyChecker.com compared to local U.S. pharmacy price (8/21/15).
1 Center for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db184.htm
Tagged with: affordable, affordable prescriptions, afib, coumadin, Deep Vein Thrombosis, Drug Prices, Eliquis, Prescription Drug Savings Reports, stroke
by PharmacyChecker.com | Aug 5, 2015 | Drug Prices, Online Pharmacies, Personal Drug Importation, Prescription Discount Cards
Appearing on Fox and Friends this past Saturday morning, Tod Cooperman, MD, founder of PharmacyChecker.com, discussed our favorite topic – affording prescribed medication. The hosts wanted to know what is behind a recent class action lawsuit against CVS Health Corp in which the chain pharmacy is accused of overcharging consumers on generic drugs and how Americans can prevent getting bilked on price by pharmacies.
Lawsuit: CVS overcharged for generic drugs
CVS, like many chain pharmacies, has a prescription discount program, and the discounted prices can often be less than the co-pay required with some pharmacy benefit plans. However, CVS has apparently not been informing customers of the lower, discounted price. What has been happening is that hundreds of thousands of CVS customers have paid more money using their health insurance because the co-payments are higher than the discount program price.
Dr. Cooperman basically informed the public that this is probably a pretty common practice among U.S. chain pharmacies with similar programs. He said: “It’s really kind of ridiculous because you have people with insurance who…are being charged more than if you simply walked in and asked for the cash price or discounted price.” So what do you do? When you go to your local pharmacy, ask the pharmacist or pharmacy technician for the absolute lowest price you can pay. Call different pharmacies in your neighborhood, because generic drugs can sometimes cost five times more at one pharmacy than they do at another.
When medication is not affordable at your local pharmacy, international online pharmacies are an option for savings. Dr. Cooperman stated: “about five million Americans actually are now going outside the U.S. because they can’t afford their prescriptions.” Pharmacies in other countries sell safe and effective medications at much lower prices but rogue websites abound — so stick to verified international online pharmacies and compare their prices on www.pharmacychecker.com. Dr. Cooperman noted the technical illegality of personally importing meds but that the FDA doesn’t “go after consumers for doing it.”
Anna Kooiman, one of the hosts, mentioned that people lose their lives because they can’t afford medication. She added, “Listen, it might be illegal but some people do what they have to do to save their own lives.”
by PharmacyChecker.com | Jun 5, 2015 | Advocacy, Government, Online Pharmacies, Policy, Prescription Drug Reports, Rogue Online Pharmacies
For the past three months or so, we’ve published a section a week of our report called “Online Pharmacies, Personal Drug Importation and Public Health.” The report was written to call attention to a woefully flawed and highly misleading report published by the Government Accountability Office about Internet pharmacies and how best to carry out enforcement actions to protect consumers from rogue online pharmacies. Rogue pharmacy websites that endanger public health require serious efforts by regulators and law enforcement personnel, domestically and globally. However, instead of focusing all efforts on the tens of thousands of rouge pharmacy websites polluting the Internet, the federal government and private industry are also targeting the safest international online pharmacies, ones that Americans rely on to obtain affordable medication. Why?
Through this series on our blog, we’ve tried to draw the attention and understanding of our elected leaders and the public-at-large to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry, along with U.S. chain pharmacies, are clearly the ones driving policy, including enforcement priorities when it comes to the issue of online access to safe and affordable medication. In some cases, drug companies are directly funding law enforcement officials. And those companies don’t want Americans obtaining much more affordable and safe medication from pharmacies outside the U.S. And with that, we publish the conclusion to our report.
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Tagged with: chain pharmacies, GAO, Government Accountability Office, pharmaceutical industry, public health, rogue online pharmacies
